Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Page, Tate Cromwell "Piney," 1908-1984 (Fa 1397), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1397. Papers of Page, former Dean of the College of Education at Western Kentucky University, primarily concerning his work documenting the people, places, history and folklore of the Ozarks region in Arkansas where he was raised. Also includes his photographs of historic structures, made mostly in western Kentucky.

Bluegrass Backstory: Connecting People To Local History Through Podcasting, David Hunter Hartlage

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Kentucky has a rich cultural identity, built upon a storied local history. Unfortunately, certain aspects of local cultural history, such as the origins of Kentucky vernacular music or how the bourbon industry has promoted growth in Kentucky’s communities, are not readily apparent. The increasing popularity and accessibility of podcasting offers local historians an opportunity to address this problem.

The goal of this project was to create a podcast program which makes information regarding the history, culture, and identity of Kentucky accessible to all in a scholarly—but engaging—way. I researched podcasting equipment and how to use it, then purchased that equipment …

Conjugal Relation: The Shakers'question For Frontier Kentucky, Peter Hawes

James W. Jackson Award for Excellence in Library Research in the Social Sciences

At its heart, this is a case fraught with pain and loss that is not unique to this particular period in frontier Kentucky. Although the presence of the Shakers, and a community’s reaction to them, imbue this case with meaning historically, this divorce also speaks to unchanging questions about the nature of conjugal relation in the face of an uncertain eternity. This is a case that reveals something about broader anti-Shakerism, but it also demonstrates that for many, the broader contexts of religious change and budding institutions were not perceptible factors in their experience of life on the frontier. With …

Does "Good" Mean White?: Understanding The Complexities Of Refugee Resettlement In Bowling Green, Kentucky, Molly Shaddix

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Bowling Green, Kentucky is a relatively small town comparable to its counterparts across the South. However, Bowling Green has a significant population of refugee inhabitants that have resettled in waves since the late 1970s. This paper describes the lived experience of refugees resettling by analyzing community action and troubles faced while working for independence in their new homes. Some factors explored are access to affordable housing, language barriers, and trouble in education. In addition, this paper contextualizes their lived experiences with other resettlement communities across the United States to understand how Bowling Green fits into patterns of societal xenophobia, racism, …

Lesieur, John Bryan "Jack," B. 1986 (Mss 707), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and selected scanned files (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Collection 707. Documentation for an archaeological study, conducted by John Bryan LeSieur, of Kyrock, a planned industrial community in Edmonson County, Kentucky. Includes interviews, photographs, and an interpretive narrative.

Williams, Michael Ann (Fa 459), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and interview transcriptions for Folklife Archives Project 459. Interviews related to Sarah Gertrude Knott and the National Folk Festival conducted by Michael Ann Williams and Hillary Glatt as part of a joint project for the Kentucky Oral History Commission and Western Kentucky University. The audio interviews did not come with this collection. Interview transcriptions may be accessed by clicking on the "Download" button to the right and then clicking on the hyperlinks in the finding aid.

Sledge, William Leonard, B. 1948 - Collector (Sc 3514), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for SC 3514. Script and photographs from two womanless wedding shows held in the Alvaton School gymnasium in Alvaton, Warren County, Kentucky in the 1960s. The images are stored in the WKU Photo Archives.

Stewart, John George, 1890-1970 (Sc 3509), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3509. Letter from John George Stewart, Architect of The U.S. Capitol, to U.S. Congressman William H. Natcher certifying that the accompanying flag had flown over the U.S. capitol. The flag was for the Bowling Green, Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.

United Way Of Southern Kentucky - Bowling Green, Kentucky (Mss 687), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 687. Minutes, financial documents, correspondence, promotional material, and committee reports related to United Way of Southern Kentucky, a re-granting agency that supports a number of social, educational and charitable organizations in south central Kentucky.

An Ethnic Cultural Landscape: German Breweries And Social Institutions In Covington, Kentucky, 1860-1920, Andrew Jones

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

A useful marker for recognizing the impact that ethnic groups make to the social and cultural characteristics of a city are the institutions and material landscapes created by those groups. In northern Kentucky, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, German immigrants and their descendants in the city of Covington established institutions such as breweries, saloons, social associations, and churches that became the heart of ethnic neighborhoods and shaped the form of the landscape. This research examines institutional and cultural landscape markers of German cultural identity in the city of Covington, Kentucky, from 1860 to 1920. Demographic and spatial data …

American Association Of University Women - Danville, Kentucky (Mss 681), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 687. Records of the Danville branch of the American Association of University Women, including minutes, president’s reports, newsletters, historical information, programming materials and other miscellaneous items. Also includes more limited material about the state and regional divisions of the AAUW.

Miller, Harold Asher, B. 1939 (Mss 679), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 679. Correspondence, speeches, political material and notes related to Harold Asher Miller’s political career, which included several terms on the Bowling Green City Commission and one term as the city’s Mayor in the 1980s. It also includes material related to several Miller campaigns for the Warren County Judge Executive position.

Bowling Green, Kentucky - Fire Department (Sc 3489), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of documents (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3489. Compiled correspondence and documents related to the purchase of fire trucks for the cities of Bowling Green and Smiths Grove in Warren County, Kentucky. Most of the material was scanned and is only available in digital format, but a few original letters and documents were retained.

Bowling Green, Kentucky - Waterworks (Sc 3488), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of documents (Click on "Additional Files" below for Manuscripts Small Collection 3488. “Changes in Plans and Specifications for Water Works Improvements, Contracts Nos. 1 to 5, Incl[usive] for the City of Bowling Green, Bowling Green, Kentucky, December 12, 1947.”

Holland, Danny (Fa 1331), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1331. Information related to “Second Monday,” court day in Scottsville, Kentucky, collected by Danny Holland for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University. Holland gives a brief introduction to his research methods followed by information collected from Second Monday participants. He includes name of informant, age, and place of residence.

West Kentucky Coal Company - Sturgis, Kentucky (Mss 670), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 570. Accounting records, chiefly accounts payable, for West Kentucky Coal Company headquartered in Sturgis, Kentucky. Most transactions include receipts from a given vendor along with a summary voucher from West Kentucky Coal. Also includes some payroll records.

Guthrie, Charles Snow, 1922-2000 (Mss 668), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 668. Research, correspondence and manuscripts of WKU English faculty member Charles Snow Guthrie regarding the history of Freemasonry in Kentucky. Includes some business records relating to Guthrie’s farm in Cumberland County, Kentucky.

Bowling Green Welfare Home - Bowling Green, Kentucky (Sc 3390), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3390. Two reports on the Bowling Green Welfare Home, 1023 Adams Street, Bowling Green, Kentucky. The first lists expenses from 1932-1934 and provides a short history and a list of residents. The second, by Marie Pennington, is dated 1936 and reports on the home’s history, personnel and finances, and describes a few of the welfare cases.

Libraries - Woodford County, Kentucky (Sc 3391), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3391. Collected research on the history of library services in Woodford County, Kentucky. Includes clippings, correspondence (particularly regarding the merger of the Woodford County Library and the Logan Helm Memorial Library), and historical narratives.

Loving, Frances (Hoover), 1906-1982 (Sc 3339), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3339. Letter, 19 August 1968, of Frances (Hoover) Loving, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to the editor of the Park City Daily News, Bowling Green, Kentucky. The former resident of Bowling Green deplores the recent bombing of a rural African-American church near the city and expresses the hope that law enforcement will solve the crime, stated in an attached clipping to be the sixth in the county in the past eighteen months. Copied to several state and national politicians, pastors, and Western Kentucky University faculty, the letter was published in the Daily News on …

Elections And Election Campaigns - Magoffin County, Kentucky (Sc 3334), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3334. Letter, 3 June 1993, to WKU faculty member John Parker from Jim Kelly, Flat Gap, Kentucky in reference to a recent article in a Lexington, Kentucky newspaper on the use of nicknames by political candidates. He encloses a copy of a paid political advertisement from “a few years ago,” placed in the Salyersville (Kentucky) Independent by magistrate candidate James “N----r” Howard (the racial epithet being spelled in full). Kelly also encloses a more recent clipping reporting on election fraud in Magoffin County.

African Americans In Madison County, Kentucky, Reinette F. Jones

Library Presentations

Reinette Jones, Special Collections Librarian at the University of Kentucky Libraries, speak about notable Madison County African Americans.

Gotta’ Go! African American Migration And Community Outside Kentucky, Reinette F. Jones

Library Presentations

Reinette Jones from the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center shares what she has learned about the fascinating and hidden story of the "out-migration" of African Americans from Kentucky while developing the Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (NKAA).

Please, Remember Me: African Americans From Scott County, Ky, Reinette F. Jones

Library Presentations

Reinette Jones, who created the Notable Kentucky African Americans (NKAA) Database, explains how to use this award-winning library tool while introducing us to some lesser-known Scott Countians. They include Sgt. Harrison Bradford, who led the San Pedro Springs Mutiny (TX) in 1867, in the fight for fair treatment of African American soldiers, and Lillian Nareen White, the first African American woman to play basketball at UK.

Warren County, Kentucky - Area Solid Waste Management Plan (Sc 3315), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3315. Five year update, covering the years 2018-2022, of Warren County, Kentucky’s Area Solid Waste Management Plan. Prepared by the Warren County Fiscal Court, it consists of data and supporting documentation submitted to the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection, Division of Waste Management. This collection is in digital format only in TopSCHOLAR.

Camp Paradise - Calloway County, Kentucky (Sc 3322), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3322. Letter, 7 June 1957, to a Mr. Hicks from Sid and Florence Jobs, owners and operators of Camp Paradise at Kentucky Lake, Calloway County, Kentucky, with suggestions on timely scheduling of a reservation. Includes a two-page mimeograph describing the Camp’s location, amenities, lodging facilities and rates; a color postcard of the camp, and black and white photographs of fishermen and of the Camp’s cottages.

Cowan, Gilbert, 1903-1969 (Sc 3316), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3316. Letters, 28 July and 18 November 1931, of Gilbert Cowan, written to his brother Finley Cowan in Cannons Mill, Clinton County, Kentucky, while Gilbert was an inmate at the Kentucky State Reformatory in Frankfort, Kentucky. He asks Finley to help arrange a recommendation for him to the superintendent of the prison school, and doubts that he, unlike other inmates, will be able to apply for a reduced sentence. He also wishes he could attend church with Finley in order to “get me a gal.” The institutional letterhead includes rules governing inmate letter-writing …

Cox, Hilda-Gay (Fa 1239), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1239. Student folk studies project titled “Sequent Occupance of the Main Business District of Hodgenville, Kentucky,” which includes a list of illustrations with brief descriptions of residents and buildings in the main business district of Hodgenville, LaRue County, Kentucky. List entries may include a brief description of building, resident, location, donor, and photo.

Hutchinson, Julian Terrence, Jr., 1933-2004 (Sc 3298), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3298. Lists, drafts, receipts, and campaign and organizational materials relating to Julian T. Hutchinson’s involvement in Democratic politics in Fayette County, Kentucky. Includes material relating to the formation of the Blue Grass Fayette County Democratic Club and the Fayette County Young Democrats Club, and to Hutchinson’s 1965 campaign for the Democratic nomination to represent Kentucky’s 54^th District in the state legislature.

Clements, Earle Chester, 1896-1985 (Sc 3292), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3292. Letter, 11 July 1947, to a voter from the chairman of Earle C. Clements’ campaign for governor of Kentucky, providing brief data on the candidate and soliciting support; also letter, 30 October 1961, from Clements replying to the recipient’s telegram about a toll road groundbreaking ceremony in Leitchfield, Kentucky. Clements, who had earlier resigned as state highway commissioner and was not informed of the ceremony, nevertheless expresses satisfaction that he had initiated the project.